Ostomachion (nonfiction)

Ostomachion (after Suter; this version requires a lateral stretch by a factor of two to match that in the Archimedes Palimpsest).

Ostomachion, also known as loculus Archimedius ("Archimedes' box" in Latin) and also as syntomachion, is a mathematical treatise attributed to Archimedes.

This work has survived fragmentarily in an Arabic version and in a copy of the original ancient Greek text made in Byzantine times.

The word Ostomachion has as its roots in the Greek Ὀστομάχιον, which means "bone-fight", from ὀστέον (osteon), "bone" and μάχη (mache), "fight, battle, combat".

Note that the manuscripts refer to the word as "Stomachion", an apparent corruption of the original Greek.

Ausonius gives us the correct name "Ostomachion" (quod Graeci ostomachion vocavere, "which the Greeks called ostomachion").

The Ostomachion which he describes was a puzzle similar to tangrams and was played perhaps by several persons with pieces made of bone.

It is not known which is older, Archimedes' geometrical investigation of the figure, or the game.

Victorinus, Bassus Ennodius, and Lucretius also wrote about the game.

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Archimedes (nonfiction)

External links:

• Ostomachion @ Wikipedia